October 17, 1878. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
2&9 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day | Day pS | Average Clock Day 
of | _of OCTOBER 17—23, 1878. eemperature near || out] Sat | Mfoom | Moons |; Moon’s)}} hetore || of 
‘onth Week | London. Rises. | Sets. Rises. | Sets Age. Sun. | Year 
an } ane Night Mean.| h. m.| h. m.| h. m.| h. m]| Days. ae 5; oat) 
7 H | 58.8 | 40. COE SS EE SIF SL AP all a 21 Es 18) 
18 | F Sale of Orchids at Liverpool. | 60.4 | 40.7 | 50.6 6 31 5 0 9 30) 1 40 22 14 47 9/291 
19 s | 59.4 | 41.7 50.5 6 33 4 57 | 10 51 2 10 ¢ 14 58 | 292 
20 SUN | 18 SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. | 59.0 39.2 49.1 6 34 4 55 | morn. 2 32 24 15 9 293 
21 M 58.4 39.5 49.0 6 36 4 53 0 16 2 dl 25 | 15 18 | 294 
22 TU He) 42.4 50.6 6 38 4 51 1 41 Gh. Ys 26 | 15 27 | 295 
23 | W Robert Fish died, 1873. 2 | 39.8 | 49.0 6 40] 4 49 3.7 3 32 27 | 15 36 | 296 
From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 59.0°; and its night temperature 
40.6°. 
OUR STRAWBERRY BED: 
INCLUDING PRACTICAL HINTS BY THE LATE HENRY DOUBLEDAY. 
WW )2)) the late Henry Doubleday I should hardly 
\“He have ventured to give our experience upon 
i Strawberry rearing to the public. 
About fifteen years ago we became pos- 
sessed of an old walled-in garden, where 
Apple trees flourished and Gooseberry trees 
were covered with moss, a patch of Raspberry 
canes bore scarce and stunted fruits, and walks 
and plots, including a Strawberry bed, could hardly 
be distinguished from the wilderness around of Sow- 
thistles, Rushes, Groundsel, Chickweed, Nightshade, 
Bindweed, and a host of other weeds which met the eye on 
every side. To our great surprise, in spite of the weeds, 
we found one or two very tolerable dishes of old white 
Strawberries, which, though small, were exceedingly well 
flavoured. We had brought with us an experienced gar- 
dener, who shook his head wisely, and told us to wait till 
next season and he would show us what a Strawberry bed 
should be. So we waited. The weeds and Strawberries were 
dug up, barrowfuls of manure and turf were liberally ap 
plied to the plot, which was carefully tilled, and the Straw- 
berry plants were set in neat rows about 2 feet apart. The 
season of blossoming came, and Patrick exulted over the 
quantity of white flowers; but for seven years from that 
time we had not a single dish of Strawberries fit to place 
upon our dinner*table. A scarce supply of shrivelled and 
wizened fruit perfectly hard at the apex rewarded all cur 
care. Numberless plans were adopted, and runners of 
British Queen from a friend’s garden were tried in vain, 
and we became thoroughly disgusted. At last C said, 
“Why not write to your kind old friend Mr. Doubleday, 
and ask him for information?” The happy thought was 
adopted, and by return of post came a letter offering if we 
would throw out all our old Strawberries to send twelve 
difterent kinds of runners for trial in our. garden, an offer 
which I need hardly say was thankfully accepted. With 
the Strawberry runners came the following directions and 
account of his own management :—‘I grow all my Straw- 
berries in beds with paths between them; each bed con- 
tains thirty-one plants 2 feet apart in the rows, and the 
rows 2 feet apart also. I have thirty beds, fifteen of which 
are replanted every year. The runners are potted, and as 
soon as they are well rooted they are planted out. I have 
just finished five beds (August Ist). A limestone forma- 
tion is not very favourable to Strawberries, as they prefer 
a rich heavy loam ; but I think you ought to have plenty 
of good fruit. From what you say I think the surface 
roots are injured in some way. In forming new beds some 
good rotten manure should be dug in, and the soil should 
be well broken to pieces. A week or so afterwards, if 
the plants are ready to put out, the lines for the rows 
should be marked out and the ground be trodden down 
till it is quite firm and solid ; the plants should then be 
put in, and the soil pressed or trodden down till quite 
firm, not placing the crown of the plants too deeply 
NO. 916,—VOl.. XXXY., NEW SERIES, , 
| in the earth; they should then have a good soaking of 
water. When the surface of the bed is dry enough it 
| should be made level with a Dutch hoe and rake, but the 
S\ITHOUT the support of such an authority as_ 
soil ought not to be moved more than an inch deep, the 
runners will then only want watering when the weather is 
dry. All runners which they send out should be cut off 
and the bed kept clean of weeds with a Dutch hoe. The 
ground must never be forked or dug after the plants are 
put in; this is a very important point. Digging between 
the rows, which is often done in the spring by gardeners 
who ought to know better, destroys all the surface roots 
which support the fruit, and of course, though the plants 
may blossom abundantly, they produce little or no fruit. 
A good coating of rich manure laid on the surface of the 
beds in March is very beneficial to the plants. They should 
only be left two years; in fact when properly managed 
they might almost be treated as annuals. When watering 
in dry weather I give each plant two quarts of water.” 
Half of the Strawberry runners sent by our generous friend 
(é.e., six of each kind) we planted when well rooted in our 
old Strawberry plot, giving a small bed to each variety. The 
others were tried in a border from which Potatoes had first 
been dug, merely pulverising and then rolling the ground 
according to Mr. Doubleday’s directions, and we waited 
anxiously for the result. On the old bed we had a few 
miserable berries “ wizened” as in old times. The new 
border produced upon each plant three or four healthy and 
enormous Strawberries. For another season we left both 
beds untouched, merely weeding by hand and giving in 
autumn a good surface-dressing of decayed leaves, and in 
spring of manure to the young plants. On the border we 
had a very fine and abundant crop, on the beds not a berry 
worth gathering ; so a number of runners were rooted, a 
spot of ground lately occupied by Potatoes chosen, and 
from that time we have never wanted Strawberries either 
for preserving or for table use. An accident discovered the 
secret of the old Strawberry plot ; the soil, already porous 
and light, had been rendered so loose by the quantity of 
turf which had been dug into it by our “experienced” 
gardener that it would not bind round the young plants, 
and of course would not retain suflicient moisture to swell 
the fruit. And from experience we have little doubt that 
in any limestone garden turf is poison to the ground for 
Strawberry plants. 
Mr. Doubleday continued to take a great interest in our 
experiments, and from time to time we received valuable 
hints. With any very valuable new Strawberry he recom- 
mended plunging small pots filled with sandy soil in the 
bed and pegging down the earliest runners into these with- 
out removing them from the parent plant till well rooted. 
The top of each runner should be nipped off, as it is likely 
to produce a second young plant, and to weaken the first 
and best offset. This plan is of course impracticable in a 
crowded bed, and if the pots containing runners of good 
kinds are plunged in large boxes with soot or lime beneath 
them and left for three or four weeks in some shaded spot 
of the garden they will form excellent plants, of which the 
balls can be turned out without any injury to their mass of 
roots when the bed is ready for them. 
No, 15¢8—Vou. LX., OLD SERIES. 
